grumble
/ˈɡɹʌmbl̩/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ˈɡɹʊmbəl/
grumble noun: a high thundering, rumbling or growling sound.
Noun
grumble (plural grumbles)
Verb
grumble (third-person singular simple present grumbles, present participle grumbling, simple past and past participle grumbled)
- To make a low, growling or rumbling noise, like a hungry stomach or certain animals.
- The distant thunder grumbles.
- It made his stomach grumble in protest to think the mule was eating, and here he was worrying about her with an empty belly of his own.1995, Terry C. Johnston, Dance on the Wind, page 15
- To complain; to murmur or mutter with discontent; to make ill-natured complaints in a low voice and a surly manner.
- He grumbles about the food constantly, but has yet to learn to cook.
- They sea-saw'd high,
They sea-saw'd low,
At length they both did tumble,
We both are down
We both must own,
Let neither of us grumble.1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew, page 9
- To utter in a grumbling fashion.
- He grumbled that there was no grain "in the country" and that people were talking instead of working to provide it.2001, Harry Willcox Pfanz, Gettysburg — the first day
grumble meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
grumble in Tamil
- மனக்குறை, முணங்கு
grumble in Urdu
- to grumble
- بڑبڑانا baṛbaṛānā
grumble in Bengali
- অসন্তষ্ট হইয়া বিড়বিড় করা, অসন্তোষ প্রকাশ করা
grumble in Malayalam
- അതൃപ്തി പ്രകടമാക്കുക, മുറുമുറുക്കുക, മുരളുക, പിറുപിറുക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- grumble in Kannada
- ಗೊಣಗಾಟ, ದೂರು, ಅಸಮಾಧಾನ, ಆಕ್ಷೇಪಣೆ
- grumble in Arabic
- قَمْقَمَ qamqama
- grumble in Indonesian
- menggerutu, merajuk
- grumble in Persian
- ژکیدن žakidan
- grumble in Vietnamese
- lầm bầm, lẩm bẩm
Examples of grumble in a sentence
- It beseems you not to grumble thus.
- You can grumble all you like, but in any event, you'd better be there at the appointed time.
- I don’t grumble, even though eba clings to surfaces, especially wooden ones, like superglue.
Forms of grumble
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | grumbles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | grumbles |
| present participle | grumbling |
| past participle | grumbled |
| past | grumbled |
Origin of grumble
Probably from Middle French grommeler, from Old French grumeler (“to murmur, grumble”), from Middle Dutch *grommelen ("to murmur, mutter, grunt"; > Modern Dutch grommelen (“to grumble”)), frequentative of Middle Dutch grommen (“to growl, grunt”). Cognate with Middle Low German grummelen (> Low German grummeln (“to grumble”)), German grummeln (“to grumble”), Norwegian dialectal grymja (“to growl, grunt”).
Words formed from grumble
Words that rhyme with grumble
Questions about grumble
- What does grumble mean?
- Grumble means a high thundering, rumbling or growling sound.
- What is grumble in Tamil?
- Grumble in Tamil is மனக்குறை, முணங்கு. See Grumble meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is grumble?
- Grumble can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce grumble?
- Grumble is pronounced /ˈɡɹʌmbl̩/.
- What is the plural of grumble?
- The plural of grumble is grumbles.
Words near grumble in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: grumble (page history and authors); grumble (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); بڑبڑانا (Urdu) (page history and authors); grumble (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); grumble (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); grumble (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-grumble.ogg.
Cite this entry: “grumble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grumble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.